blood that i would bleed
by hieress
Summary: "This is Annabeth Chase, Percy. You can't believe Tartarus can beat her."/\ Percabeth.


Percy climbs back aboard Argo II in a daze, face almost void of emotion as he remembers Annabeth's screams as she falls down down down to the pits of Tartarus until he can't hear anything anymore. No one says a word, climbing _up _while she falls _down _because of a big _fucking _mistake, a little detail forgotten.

The demigods – seven, still _seven_ of them – have an uneasy air around them. They sit quietly, Piper and Jason huddled together, Hazel and Frank sharing sidelong glances, Leo focuses himself on the controls, muttering to himself quietly, and Nico sends Percy wary glances.

Percy sits quietly on a corner, Nico across him and Percy is glad for Nico because he's someone familiar, in a ship aboard new people, he's thankful for Nico. He remembers the first time he met the kid – not so much a kid now, with the way his eyes look _so _dark, full of darkness, sadness – and _wow, _Annabeth also fell down a cliff that time, and Nico was asking him questions, "_If Annabeth is the daughter of Athena, shouldn't she know better than falling off cliffs?_" "_Is Annabeth your girlfriend?_"

His body quakes and he can't stop the laughter bubbling out of his lips.

"Percy-" Nico says across him, worry on his face and _why the fuck is _he _the one worried here, _he's _the one who has been locked in a jar, not Percy._

And Percy laughs more at that fact because he remembers Nico as a kid, how there was so much darkness before him even then and it's not fair, not fair, but the gods and the fates have never been fair and he's so _mad, _because Annabeth fell because she forgot a _string _was tied to her ankle and _gods, _a fucking string, that's all it took.

He's roaring in laugher, mad, hysterical laughter, and everyone's looking at him with pity and worry and fear and that makes him laugh more and it takes him a moment to realize Nico is holding him to his chest and Percy feels Nico's breath on his hair.

"She really should have known better, Nico," Percy mutters against Nico's shirt, torn and black and dirty and _is this what Tartarus smells like?_

Nico heaves a sigh and Percy feels the bones underneath his shirt and his skin and can almost hear the crackling. "We'll get her back, Percy. You'll see. If she can hold the weight of the world, she can handle Tartarus, you'll see."

And he thinks, _I could've been with her._

Percy holds Nico, holds him close, because among everyone here, it's Nico who he can share Annabeth and her memories and her fond smiles and how when she calls him _Seaweed Brain _it's a term of endearment. Percy tries to ignore the wetness he feels on his hair and Nico tries to ignore the wet stains on his shirt.

IOI

On the third night without Annabeth, Percy stays watch with Nico.

Navigating the ship is so much easier now, he knows exactly everything there is to know and he doesn't need to think about it.

He doesn't like thinking a lot, these days, not even when he fights with sea monsters ten times his size, not even when he eats or sleeps or talks with his friends. He thinks of how she'd laugh when he tells her this and how she'd kiss him because he's being stupid again and she'll kiss the tips of his nose and his eyelids and his forehead and she'll tell him she loves him and–-

"I can't stop thinking about her," Percy says, voice soft and quiet. He's not sure if it's because he intends for Nico not to hear but he says it anyway, an honest truth.

"Annabeth." A fact.

"_Annabeth_," Percy breathe her name, voice cracking. "Annabeth," he says to the night, shifting his weight on his forearms on the rails, letting the sea mist hit his face. He likes the dark more and more and he's wondering whether or not Annabeth sees the same darkness down in the abyss and if she's starting to hate it and if she yearns for the sun and if he could bring it to her, please, _please._

"We'll get her back, Percy," Nico says, his elbows on the rails and his back to the sea. Percy wonders if it's because he hates the darkness, because he's had enough of how it's empty and yet it's full of horrors, wonders if Nico hates the night because it's vast and dark and so so so like Tartarus.

Nico is looking at Percy. Percy looks back at him, wondering if Nico sees any difference between this Percy and the Percy he met ages ago, wondering if Nico hates this Percy or pities this Percy, wondering if Nico knows his eyes are broken and scarred and defeated. Percy nods at him.

"We _will._" Nico says, enough conviction in his voice Percy almost believes him, almost. "This is _Annabeth Chase, _Percy. You can't believe Tartarus can beat her. This is Annabeth, who saved you from witches when you were a fucking rodent, who held the sky on her shoulders and who went to the Labyrinth with you, who activated a hundred fucking automatons on the Titan war. She fought fucking _Arachne, _okay, she found the Mark of Athena when others have searched for it and failed in _two thousand years, _she did a hundred thousand things you thought would have been impossible. You think _Tartarus _will hold her down? _No. _No."

Percy looks at Nico, really look at him. Because he talks like a kid and yet his means are a man's, and how he's really a man, and looks like a kid and how Nico is a hundred paradoxes, and how this kid never got the normal life Percy's had, even when he was a demigod.

"N-Nico." Then there are tears on his face and he can't imagine what he looks like right now, dirty and crying like a little boy and he _should _be strong, because Annabeth will be strong and he can't give her up, not even when she's in the pits of Tartarus, broken ankle and exhausted and _alone, _but Nico provides him a moment and he _needs _this. "I'm so- _so _sorry. I shouldn't have let her go, not for one moment, I- I-"

"Percy." Nico's eyes shine, and Percy thinks of when Nico tried to kill him, hell bent on revenge, and Nico eating his cake in his bedroom and thinks of Nico saving him from Hades when his dad had tricked him. A tear slides down Nico's cheek and Percy recalls a line from one of the songs Annabeth used to listen to, says, _this is how an angel cries._

Thinking really hurts right now. He sighs, deep and heavy and his lungs hurts, his chest hurts and his whole body hurts. He faces the sea mist again.

IOI

One night, he's finding sleep an impossible task, especially since Leo said they were to land on Greece the next day and something in him grows restless, snarling like a wolf, roaring like the sea, and it wants to break out of him, soar into the heavens and it want to topple down everything that stands in his way and it excites him so, _so, _much.

He wonders if this is what Annabeth meant when she said the thing about hubris and thinking you're better than the gods.

That night, he dreams of her.

IOI

The woman is made of dirt and she stands in the way between Percy and Annabeth.

He knows he shouldn't be affected, knows it's not Gaea, knows Gaea is looking at him from somewhere, laughing at him, maybe.

"You took her from me," he tells the woman, "You're not gonna get out easy on this, Gaea, when I find you, I'm gonna make you _suffer. _You can't be killed, but you can bleed. And I'll make you _bleed._"

The dirt laughs and he thrusts Riptide through its chest and the dust evaporates.

IOI

In his dreams, he's in tartarus, he knows somehow, just _knows. _He looks for her because he knows she's here, too. He knows it, _hopes_ for it because it's been ages since he's last seen her face even though it's only been days and the last time he's since her she was dirty and grimy and bloody and he wants to see her _right now._

A form lays huddled in the corner and he tries to move closer, what if he's _late, _oh god, no, no, no-

Annabeth lifts her head, says, "Percy."

She's dirty and her face has blood and something else and her skin is covered by new scars and her eyes are full of new scars and _gods, _Percy can't even think what it's been like for her down here all alone fighting for her life, broken, bloody, and bruised and Percy _couldn't do anything about it._

He says her name and she goes back down. He knows she can't see him, can't hear her but he hopes she can feel him. He says her name again and stays until he wakes.

IOI

That morning, he fights like a demon, fights for Annabeth, fights for the feeling of her skin on his and fights for the love he feels for her and _gods _damn him if monsters that belong to the old, dark nightmares would stop him.

Because Tartarus hadn't stopped Annabeth and Tartarus won't stop him.

IOI

**A/N: **SCREAM I had this idea and I can't stop thinking about it I'm so sorry.

(Possibly) next in the list of AUs I can't stop thinking about: Annabeth and Reyna in places of Percy and Jason for the exchange program. Aw yiss.


End file.
